Specialty Teleconstructors Inc. announced its purchase of Orlando Tower Service Inc., an Orlando, Fla.-based builder of transmitting and receiving facilities for wireless telecommunications providers. Consideration for the transaction totaled $135,000 in cash, consisting of two semiannual payments of $65,000 during a 12-month period. Specialty, headquartered in Cedar Crest, N.M., is acquiring the privately held assets and personnel of Orlando Tower, and plans to conduct all regional operations from Specialty’s recently opened Birmingham, Ala., office.
PriCellular Corp. announced that its subsidiary, PriCellular Wireless Corp., completed a placement of $205 million aggregate principal amount 12.25 percent senior subordinated discount notes. The notes were issued at a discount with an original issue price of $143.3 million, and interest payable in cash. The proceeds of the offering will be used to complete the acquisition of several rural service areas and metropolitan service areas totaling about 1.6 million pops. Subject to federal approval, the offering will bring nearly 3.6 million pops owned or under contract by PriCellular.
Preferred Networks Inc. has completed negotiations for the purchase of BellSouth Corp.’s paging networks in Jacksonville, Orlando and Miami, Fla. PNI said it will expand the available frequencies on these systems to provide greater options to its customers-both resellers and interconnected paging companies. “As the `carrier’s carrier’ in paging, the Florida markets will enhance PNI’s relationships with other paging companies and give us a stronger footprint for our existing customers,” stated Michael Saner, PNI’s president.
Comsat Corp.’s business unit, Comsat RSI, has acquired privately owned JEFA International Inc. of Texas. Operating as Comsat RSI JEFA Wireless Systems, the unit will provide integrated turnkey systems and services for wireless services operators, including cellular and personal communications services, common carriers and government organizations. The new company will report to Comsat RSI’s Wireless Networks Group, which provides wireless communications systems worldwide.
Mercury One 2 One announced it will extend the scope of the equipment supply agreement made in June 1994 with Nortel Ltd., the principal operating company in the United Kingdom of Canada’s Northern Telecom Ltd. The extension increases the contract’s total value to $175 million. The revised contract calls for a complete turnkey solution, based on the DCS 1800 digital cellular standard, a derivative of Global System for Mobile communications technology. The turnkey solution includes radio equipment and a full range of customer services such as site acquisition, network engineering, civil works, installation, commissioning and integration into the existing One 2 One network.
Glenayre Technologies Inc.’s board of directors will meet Nov. 8 to approve an increase in the number of authorized common shares from 50 million to 200 million. The company stated that the increase in authorized shares was required to provide shares for stock splits, potential acquisitions and other general corporate purposes.
